Monday, February 07, 2005

A Lot of Entertainment for Five Bucks

We assume you have been following the ongoing dustup between Professor Juan Cole of Informed Comment and steatopygic hagspawn Jonah Goldberg of NRO's The Corner (Prof. Cole was last seen with Wusthof blade in hand, preparing a heapin' helping of cojones tartare for which Mr. Goldberg was kind enough to donate the key ingredient). At one point in the harvesting process Mr. Cole cited a letter from a reader who wondered why, if Mr. Goldberg was so all-fired hot for the U.S. to start killing ragheads, he had neglected to volunteer for military service -- and to this Mr. Goldberg replied,

As for why my sorry a** isn't in the kill zone, lots of people think this is a searingly pertinent question. No answer I could give -- I'm 35 years old, my family couldn't afford the lost income, I have a baby daughter, my a** is, er, sorry, are a few -- ever seem to suffice. But this chicken-hawk nonsense is something that's been batted around too many times to get into again here . . . . Meanwhile, the military guys have been overwhelmingly friendly and very often grateful for the support we offer around here.

After reading the above plaint, Zemblan patriot T.C. wrote in with what we think is an excellent suggestion. Daily Kos draws over 350,000 visitors a day; Atrios, almost 90,000; King of Zembla, 11 (counting the lady in Dubuque twice, because she has a full-time psychiatric nurse who gets paid to monitor her reading). If only one-fifth of those 440,011 readers -- a measly 88,002.2 -- were to donate five dollars apiece, the loss of Mr. Goldberg's income would no longer be an issue. His wife and baby daughter would be swimming in simoleons like Scrooge McDuck, freeing Jonah himself to join those grateful military guys, pop a few insurgents over there so he won't have to pop 'em over here, and otherwise fulfill his glorious destiny in Baghdad. (Or Samarra.)

Shoot, we'll kick in a five-spot to help Jonah Goldberg live his dream. How about you?